UF Vet School offers free eye and heart services to services dogs

Big dogs, little dogs, playful dogs and sleepy dogs... The UF Vetenary school has seen it all.

The Vet School offered a free check up event Friday for all service dogs.

"A lot of these animals are owned by people with disabilities who might not be able to afford specialty care so we are able to offer this as a free service," UF Cardiologist Professor Dr. Amara Estrada said

Doctors listened to their hearts and checked for any abnormalties and also checked their eyes to make sure they had no diseases or cataracts.

Dr. David Whittley a veterinary optometrist, said they had 43 dogs on their appointment list today.

"The goal of today is to give back to those service related animals," Whittley said.

These doctors say there's nothing more rewarding than to give back to dogs who give so much to their owners.

Some are seeing eye dogs, law enforcement dogs, companions and some that offer assistance for every day tasks.

"My wife has arthritis .. Sasha is being trained to retrieve things that mommy drops and is able to give it back to her," service dog owner Dave Heine said.

Heine said his dog, Sasha is blind and was kept in a crate most of her life until him and his wife rescued her.

"This is the first human love that she's had," he said. " Very early on we realized the sweetness and the capabilities she had so we thought she would make the perfect service dog."

The event went on from 9am-5pm and was sponsored by the Stokes Compound Pharmacy.